Step 11 - Skin shading

Start off by duplicating the base layer, this way if you really screw up you can start over easily. Then lock the transparency of the duplicated layer.

Then using the brush with the normal shading settings draw in all the casting shadows in the base outline colour. Casting shadows are where something leaves a shadow on something else, such as the jacket casts a shadow onto the skin, so you should shade it in. The hair and the skirt also cast shadows, but in the case of the skirt the shadow is onto the tights, which we’ll work on later. I also add a bit of a shadow under the chin, which is quite a dark area if you look at a real person or yourself in the mirror.

Next I reshade parts of the skin such as the arm and hand so that the shading style matches with the clothing shading. Most bases are pixeled and quite low contrast so I like to up the contrast, if you look at any of my dolls I shade in very high contrast and I always reshade the base. Use the outline colour to add in shadows, and the lightest colour to define highlights more. I usually then create a colour darker than the outline to add some deep shadows such as under the neck, the bust and under the arms. Don’t add lots of skin highlight because then the skin will look shiny, we’re trying to make it blend in, not make it look fake.
If you are happy with the skin-shading move onto the next step, if you’re not, delete the layer, duplicate the base again and start over.

Now for the tights. Move to the layer where your tights are and shade them in a similar way to the way that we shaded the skin, using the outline colour and the lightest colour. The skirt will cast a deeper shadow than the jacket but don’t make it too deep. (Remember to lock the transparency) The knees will also cast a bit of a shadow and the kneecaps will be the lightest point but don’t overshade. If you wanted to make the tights slightly shinier you could always add an extra colour one step lighter than the highlight. If you wanted to add a pattern to your tights the same principal goes for adding pattern to clothes. You can find tutorials on adding pattern at, DHF, Xandorra and Fainelloth and since that’s the technique I use to add pattern I don’t feel the need to reiterate what has already been said.

Step 12 - Make Up and finishing off.

Last but by no means least our rock chick needs face editing and make up. Face editing can be as simple as adding more shading and making the cheekbones more prominent to totally erasing the face and drawing your own. I usually work with what’s there changing it until I’m happy with the final result.
Since this is my base I pretty much like the eyes and the shape of the face as it is so I don’t feel the need to alter anything but most basemakers allow you to change things so feel free to move some pixels around and add more shading.
As for make up, I usually try to avoid using solid black for make up even if I want it to look black, your eyes will be deceived into thinking it’s black when in actual fact it’s not. Black is very harsh as a colour and will stand out too much when we want it to blend in.
Rock chick make up usually focuses on dark colours and heavy eyes. I’m using a dark brown instead of black for the eyes.

Firstly I use the pixel brush to define the eyebrows as her hair is dark and draw in the top eyelashes. Don’t draw in the bottom even if you want her whole eye to be lined, the make up will look very bold and cheesy if you do this.

To define the bottom eyelashes I use a much lighter brown but still a darker one than the skin to draw it in.

Using the brush I soften the upper eyelid to make it look like she has a little eye shadow on too.

I then recolour her eye because the blue is too bold so I desaturate it slightly to make it greyer. A tip for recolouring eyes, never use bold and bright colours, this makes your doll look a bit gaudy and as if you don’t know what you’re doing. Eye colour is subtle so even if your making a character of yours who absolutely must have green eyes, trust me, she’ll look prettier with subtle green tints than luminous green eyes. Zoom out and take a look.

And the last thing I think she needs is some bold red lips. Like with eyes, don’t use those very bright reds for lips, even for ‘blood red’ the subtle colours always work best for realistic dolls. Here I drew in the lips on a new layer in a dark red but when I zoom out they look a little bold and don’t quite fit on the doll, however don’t despair! Just lower the opacity of the layer and your lips should subtle right up and still look like a changed colour.

Here I drew in the lips on a new layer in a dark red but when I zoom out they look a little bold and don’t quite fit on the doll, however don’t despair! Just lower the opacity of the layer and your lips should subtle right up and still look like a changed colour.
Because she’s a rock chick where pale unblushed skin is part of the look I don’t add any colour to her cheeks.

Take one last look at 100%. If anything seems missing add it in. Just looking now I appear to have missed adding jewellery, as her arm and neck look a little bare. Don’t overcomplicate jewellery; simple pixels look better than trying to actually draw in a design. Once more add a new layer and draw in with the pixel brush a couple of bangles and a choker necklace. At this point you should also then go back to the skin layer and add shadows under the jewellery. Mostly I prefer to leave jewellery unshaded but if you wish to shade, just lock the transparency and shade away.
Take another look at the finished doll. If you truly think it’s finished, erase the palettes add your stamp and save. Or you could add more little details if you think they’re needed it’s up to you. Sometimes I can spend a while just tweaking things here until I’m 100% happy but remember Christmas tree syndrome is a bad thing. Simple is often the best.

Voila!

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